Dallol

Dallol does not look like the landscapes most travellers associate with Africa. The colours can appear almost artificial. But this is not decoration: minerals, geothermal processes, salt, heat and water create it, and the colours have a story.

Dallol sits on a salt dome kilometres thick, over a body of magma. Groundwater heated from below dissolves salt and minerals and rises as springs at up to about 95 °C, with a pH that can fall below 1. As the water evaporates it leaves the yellow, green, orange and white formations that change from season to season.

Dallol’s craters, about 45 metres or more below sea level, are the lowest known land volcanic vents in the world. The only recorded eruption was a steam-driven explosion in 1926 that left a crater about 30 metres wide at the foot of the Black Mountain. Through much of the 20th century, mining companies worked the potash in the salt beneath it; you can still see traces of the old works.

We visit early, before the strongest heat. Your guide explains the mineral colours, salt formations and volcanic activity rather than simply giving you time to photograph them.